Phoenix Wright is a Japanese text adventure game for the DS. You play as a noobie defence attorney, Phoenix Wright, who takes 5 different cases all with the odds stacked against him. The localisation effort for this game is very solid, and many jokes retain their humor... And what amazing humor it is. For example, one of my favourite parts of the game is in the 3rd case, when you discover a character who talks in 1337 5p33k. I loled soooo hard, especially since he is the only character which directly references nerd culture. He says stuff that you expect people on the internet to say, and his character design really reflects this dialogue.
Needless to say, this game absolutely lives off it's humor and story.
The gameplay in PW comes in 2 parts: Crime investigation and Courtroom.
In the investigation sequences you play phoenix in first person view and visit different story specific locations via a menu. At each location, you have the option of examining the area by touching peculiar items with the stylus, Moving to a different adjacent area, or Talking and Presenting evidence to people, if they are present. The crime investigation part is overshadowed by the more fleshed out and fun Courtroom segment, but some clever dialogue and fitting music really adds to the environmental effect of each location. The purpose of this part of the game is to gather information for your incoming courtroom section.
Now, the courtroom is where PW really shines. As a rookie, Phoenix is constantly doubting himself and his thoughts are shown in blue text, and are often funny to read. Progress in the courtroom is accomplished through the cross-examination of witness testimonies. As a defence lawyer in an incredibly imbalanced justice system, you cannot call your own witnesses, and your client is still guilty unless you can prove that someone else did it.. Yes, you must find the real culprit to reach NOT GUILTY. You try to find contradictions with your known facts in each testimony by presenting relevant evidence at appropriate statements, which pressures the witness into slipping up further, or providing information that they had not disclosed previously. But be careful, you only have 5 "lives" each day you are in court, so if you make an irrelevant claim, you lose a life. Should you lose all 5 lives, it's instant game over. This may seem harsh, but it works well, as you can save at any time, and rewards those who genuinely know what they're doing, while Loling in the face of noob guessers. This isn't without flaw however, because around 3 or 4 times in the whole game, there are sections where you seem to be stuck; Cannot progress with investigation, or you cannot seem to find which evidence should be presented at which statement in the testimony. These flaws mar an otherwise greatly paced game. There are also sections which you can immediately spot the flaw in the testimony, and quickly choose the piece of evidence you think proves a contradiction, only to find that you are a step ahead of yourself, and a totally unrelated piece of evidence is the correct answer, and consequently, the only way to progress.
What would have made this game an even greater masterpiece is the possibility of a dynamic trial, where you can present more than just 1 thing at any certain time, which leads to multiple possibilities of updated testimonies, and better use of evidence. Another way to make it even more free form is making the collection of every single piece of evidence no longer mandatory, and allow the player to play the trial anyway, and even allow them to lose without game over, as long as future events are effected.
Overall, fucking fantastic game. If you haven't played this already, do it now. The first 2 cases are pretty much tutorials, but after that.. oh man, you won't be able to put it down..
